Life isn't funny, it only appears that way

Month: May 2008

Tagline: The best thing about this movie is no longer the trailer; it’s the tagline ~ As seen on a poster for the movie by the strange name – This Beach Called Life – The Movie

I have always been fascinated by movie taglines and I hope I am not alone. According to marketing literature, a movie tagline is a branding slogan or memorable phrase, produced by overpaid marketing departments, which reflect the tone of the movie, for example, An Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making ~ Jurassic Parkor If you haven’t held her, how do you know it’s real ~ 56k. These taglines are smart and truthful hence memorable. Some taglines have even become part of pop culture – To boldly go where no man has gone before ~ Star Trekor Houston, we have a problem ~ Apollo 13. But not all taglines are fully understood until you see the movie – Grease is the word ~ Grease or The classic story about a boy and his mother ~ Psycho. Eventually, despite being paid with large paychecks, SUVs and women and men in bikinis, the best in the business comes up with this – We’ve Sensed It. We’ve Seen The Signs. Now… It’s Happening ~ The Happening.

A successful movie tagline doesn’t necessarily mean a movie will be successful and some of the best taglines have come from the most forgettable movies – It took them twenty years to fall in love at first sight ~ ‘Til there was you and A comedy about life and other terminal conditions ~ Two Thousand and None. So it seems taglines may be inspired by movies but if they are any good, can be a branding slogan for life – You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll hurl ~ Wayne’s World

Anyway, in keeping with the best season for movies, but not necessarily the season for the best movies or taglines, I have compiled a list of my favorite taglines in random disorder.

This time they’re running from the joint. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

The Coast Is Toast Volcano

The movie too HOT for words! Some Like It Hot

His Karma is Huge The Love Guru

Good girls want him bad. Bad girls want him worse. Cry-Baby

Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here? Clueless

If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards. Tommy Boy

Do you like fish? Well, he likes you too…Jaws

Happy Halloween! Halloween

Watch your head! Sleepy Hollow

Nice planet. We’ll take it! Mars Attacks!

It’s Happening. Signs

In space no one can hear you scream. Alien

The strangest story ever conceived by man. King Kong

The Devil Inside. The Exorcist

How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? Fight Club

In a world of 1s and 0s…are you a zero, or The One? The Matrix

He’s having the worst day of his life… over, and over…Groundhog Day

Not every gift is a blessing. The Sixth Sense

The Story That Won’t Go Away. JFK

The truth is always in the last place you look. The Usual Suspects

Don’t Breathe. Don’t Look Back. Twister

Life can be a comedy or a tragedy; it all depends on how you look at it. Melinda and Melinda

…Everything You’ve Heard Is True. Amadeus

For Three Men The Civil War Wasn’t Hell. It Was Practice! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

From the family movie Iron Man, rated PG-13 for brief suggestive content.

It’s hard to dislike a movie where Gwyneth Paltrow plays a sensually subdued character called Virginia Pepper Potts, while Robert Downey Jr plays a senseless billionaire named Tony Stark who has his heart replaced with a glow-in-the-dark Jell-O bowl in the Middle East. What is more important is that it’s impossible to dislike any PG-13 movie where a playboy is finally called Iron Man.

Iron Man is all about – surprise, surprise- good kicking evil’s butt blue but only after evil, disguised as Jeff Bridges, nearly crushes good’s iron clad head in a foot vice. What is amazing about Iron Man is that it would be a good movie even if the special effects were reduced to a minimum but it would be a better movie if Gwyneth Paltrow wore a short skirt and heels.

Even if reporter Christine Everhart didn’t show so much leg after jumping in the sack with Tony Stark because male billionaires have sexy bodies that sexy female reporters must have, Iron man would be a good movie. But it would be a better movie if she did it twice. Apart from the lack of leg, it’s hard to find a fault with Iron Man or a moment that wasn’t entertaining. In artistic terms Iron Man can be described as pleasantly Audi with a touch of Middle East. The movie’s characters seem straight out of a comic book with Terrence Howard playing Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes and Sayed Badreya playing Abu Baakar. Iron Man, despite bringing the taboo topic of a playboy manufacturing weapons of mass destruction to the silver screen, it still seems to be the perfect summer no-brainer appealing not only to the MTV crowd, but those who are big on men of steel.

Last week I ordered a chicken gyro from the new Arabian fast food place close to where I work. I am not sure what a Greek gyro was doing on the menu of an Arabian fast-food restaurant in Trinidad and was too hungry to ask. I placed my order and a girl with nice legs asked if I wanted pepper with it. Once the confusion over what “it” meant I said yes to the pepper since less than ten Trinidadians ever rejected pepper on their fast food since 1498 and I wasn’t about to enter that Hall of Shame. The girl was attractive even when she shouted my order to the chef who, on waking up, looked both Syrian and depressed. The chef was yawning while he took out the pita bread from a bag that looked more suited for garbage than food. Some time later his memory returned and he threw on two scoops of chicken that would require radiocarbon dating to determine its true age, and then heated everything in a microwave for one minute. He then sprinkled the gyro with lettuce and squirted on a sauce that looked like grease only not as classy. If it was one time I wanted to lose my lunch was then and I was too hungry to surrender without a bite but it took only one bite to surrender. Maybe I will try the lamb next time.

The fact that people are being robbed and murdered is being nullified by the local economy doing well. So said one of the latest politicians to roam and pillage the land. In a booming economy concrete piles are more important than people and it is only after an election people begin to realize their true worthlessness. Although the economy is doing well and the police would rather escort the piles than serve the people for overtime reasons, I am certain the economy will soon crash. That is why I can be seen stocking up on hot hops and sardines on the weekends. I am basing my economic prediction, not on a feeling, but on newspaper commentaries, comments by the Governor of the Central Bank and the imbecilic looks on the faces of those in the Ministry of Finance. These are all sure signs that we won’t need an earthquake to look up to the Hyatt and bawl. Maybe I will be proven wrong and the economy won’t collapse but hopefully that won’t prevent the piles from ending up where they truly belong.

The Government of Myanmar preventing aid from reaching those affected by Cyclone Nargis is a scandalous human rights violation. The Government of Myanmar is yet another example of how power comes before people for governments. Presently, there is a threat of another tropical storm developing into a significant cyclone and affecting Myanmar again. But what does the government care.

Darfur

Darfur is a country with starving people who are being killed by the government backed Janjaweed for no reason other than they live in Darfur and don’t support the government. It appears that Darfuris are not significant enough to the rest of the world for anybody to intervene on their behalf. It is obvious the senseless killing of people is a characteristic of human nature that shows no sign of letting up.

China

According to Amnesty International China currently holds the world record for the largest number of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents. One of the most prominent stories includes journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year sentence in a Chinese prison for sending an email! Amnesty is accusing Yahoo! of being responsible for the imprisonment of Shi Tao when Yahoo! passed on vital email information to the Chinese Government. I am wondering what the neurotic and insecure Chinese Government said to Yahoo! to get them to invade someone’s privacy. I don’t approve of Yahoo’s stance and will be protesting by sending an email to the Yahoo execs and changing my home page to Google. Little things do add up.

USA

Another issue raised by Amnesty International is the illegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay by the United States of America. Amnesty is calling on the US to charge the detainees and then give them a fair trial before independent and impartial tribunals such as U.S. federal courts.Help tear it down. Except for Harold and Kumar, no one has ever escaped from Guantanamo Bay.

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is not famous for human rights violations except for the chronic bumbling incompetence of the Government and for getting away with murder. The murder rate in Trinidad and Tobago is likely to become the highest per capita in the world and the government is indifferent to this fact. The murder detection rate is close to zero but the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is more concerned with willfully destroying the environment, getting a private jet for the Prime Minister, and legalizing corruption. The enormous wealth this country possesses is being wasted on bling-bling and palaces for the few. Incompetence and nepotism is practiced by the government, which ensures the poor gets poorer, the police get lazier, and the rich buy houses in Florida. However, despite the best efforts of the government, there are still beautiful people and places in Trinidad and Tobago.

There are very few computer users whose lives were not touched at one time or another by malware in the form of viruses, Trojans, adware, spyware and/or worms. These are all pieces of bad and unwanted software developed by seriously dysfunctional people from countries whose names are hard to pronounce and whose parents think they are sweet.

Malware is defined as software that makes your computer work bad and the earlier versions of Windows were the first malware known to man.

Spyware is software that can monitor your browsing habits and even take full or partial control of your computer. It’s like an intelligence agency or a rude boss.

A Trojan is a piece of software that claims to do one thing and ends up doing some other illicit thing, much like the government or teenagers. Trojans have been known to locate password information and send it to people who know what to do with it. Trojans do not replicate like viruses and are considered dysfunctional loners.

A virus is software that copies itself onto a legitimate program and spreads from one computer to another. Viruses can cause data to be lost or corrupted and can be a blessing to workers who need a break from their desktops.

Adware is software which runs in the background of your computer and makes popup ads, well, pop up, causing the user to scream and call the nearest nerd-friend who will not only ask how could you be so stupid over and over but who will also refuse to drive to your home at 2:00 am to try to get the pop ups to disappear despite your crying.

Worms are like viruses and consider themselves to be the baddest in the land since they stand alone and do not need to attach themselves to another program. They are the non-aligned movement of the malicious software world.

Currently there is an MP3 circulating via the popular peer-to-peer file sharing system Limewire which, when run, makes gullible users download PLAY_MP3.exe. Once the naive user runs the exe file pop ups begin to appear, and life becomes questionable again.

I have been using Avast antivirus, which is free for non-commercial home use and comes in Windows, Mac and Linux versions. However, if you want to make your computer safer from the full range of evils of the Internet world I recommend making one of the many commercial Internet security suite companies wealthy. The best suites are from McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro. I do not have a preference and your choice might depend on which you prefer to give your credit card information to.

aka_lol is an engineer by profession and by choice. As far as sports are concerned aka_lol supports the West Indies Cricket team - World Twenty20 Champions 2012.

Aka always says: "My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so" ~Charles J. Ingersoll~

aka quotes

Corruption is possibly nature’s way of leveling a playing field or building an airport. ~aka_lol

It is this continuous enrichment of the chosen minority which has angered all of us and if this blatant “thiefing” by the People’s Partnership is not stopped and remedied then the uneasiness will continue.~aka_lol

I hope this Government is able to understand what the writing on the wall is saying and it is not saying “thanks for all the box drains.” ~ aka_lol

The Police will not force the country to its knees even if it has the ability to do so on any morning they choose to go into self-service mode. ~aka_lol

Without condoms and common sense we don’t stand a chance ~ aka_lol

It can be said that sexiness is what celebrities start with and a book deal is what they end up as ~aka_lol

The Queen is Coming, No More Flooding!! ~aka_lol

We are more entertained by Commissions of Enquiries than troubled by them ~aka_lol

...stupid people need to be restrained before the country slips into that septic tank of no return ~ aka_lol

We are a population that wants to stop fighting with our elected Government and selected President and start worrying about how much of the Heritage Fund will be used for conferences and bribes ~aka_lol

A sex tape is now like a cell phone, everybody has one and some even have one with each service provider ~ aka_lol

Small minds victimize a lot ~ aka_lol

There is only one thing which a man can stick his finger in that feels better than sticking it in election ink on Election Day ~ aka_lol

What ever the truth is, a Kindle price should always be lower than the hardcover price because that is what Kindle buyers have come to expect and enjoy ~aka_lol

"We ordering pork for those who don’t eat beef." I said. That was when the screaming started ~aka_lol~

Governments like to claim they are transparent but like some underwear, never transparent enough to please the man in the street ~aka_lol~

Governments govern people therefore people must govern governments ~aka_lol~

...the Bandits Association have nothing against people making an honest dollar since it was the honest dollar from the man in the street that keeps their members happy and well fed ~aka_lol

About Engineers

An engineer is someone who is good with figures, but doesn't have the personality of an accountant.
- An Arts graduate's view of engineers-

An engineer is someone who washes his hands before going to the toilet.
- Anonymous-

There are three possible roads to ruin - women, gambling and technology. The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technology.
- Georges Pompidou -

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If
your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them
down people's throats. - Howard Aiken, IBM engineer -

copyright

aka_lol thinks it should be obvoius that the original content of this blog is copyrighted by the owner, aka:aka_lol and may not be reproduced without permission. The content not created by aka_lol belongs to its owners. Maybe you are wondering who in their right mind will ever want to copy anything from this blog. I am wondering that as well, but having the right mind isn't as common as you may think.

Cool Quotes

"He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated."

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Each religion, so dear to those whose life it sanctifies, and fulfilling so necessary a function in the society that has adopted it, necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself.

"You can't disprove the theory of God. The power of science is uncertainty. Everything is uncertain, but science can define that uncertainty. That's why science makes progress and religion doesn't."

~Lawrence Krauss~

"O Lord, I want to thank you that I was born in the West and not some other God-forsaken place, and that I was able to become a Christian by default. I'm thankful that I don't have to think hard about what I believe. I can accept without a second thought everything that's fed to me, and that I can support the status quo with a clear conscience without interrupting my comfortable way of life. You've made me what I am today without any effort on my part. I haven't had to think, question or change a thing, and for that I'm truly grateful."

~David Hayward~

As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers

~Robert G. Ingersoll~

Whenever we teach our children that groundless faith is a virtue, we pave the way for groundless violence

~Carrie Poppy~

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

~Epicurus~

Nearly every American will know of more atheists at the end of 2011 than they do today, as coming out as an atheist becomes cool. Yes. Cool

~David Silverman~

I am proud to have been in a business that gives pleasure, creates beauty, and awakens our conscience, arouses compassion, and perhaps most importantly, gives millions a respite from our so violent world.

~Audrey Hepburn~

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit us to give any of it away to imaginary beings.

~Friedrich Nietzsch~

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

Mae West

One way to stop a runaway horse is to bet on him

~Jeffrey Bernard~

When you think about it, our politicians do play god, in the sense that they're not believed in by the vast majority of the public any more, they haven't done anything demonstrably useful for absolutely ages, and they keep employing members of their own family in influential positions. I'm not saying Jesus wasn't the best man for the job, I'm just saying it would have been nice if there had been a little more transparency in the recruitment process.

~Andy Zaltzman~

Organised religion is most concerned with self-preservation

~Adam Rutherford~

It's not God I worry about. It's the self-important, pompous, power-seeking old fossils who claim to speak for him

~Anonymous~

Grief is the price we pay for love.

~Queen Elizabeth II~

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation

~Sam Harris

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance . . . Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

~Sam Harris~

My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so.

~Charles J. Ingersoll~

There is no need for us to gather every day, or every seven days, or on any high and auspicious day, to proclaim our rectitude or to grovel and wallow in our unworthiness. We atheists do not require any priests, or any hierarchy above them, to police our doctrine.

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office

~ Covert Bailey~

Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

~Richard Dawkins~

Religion is ultimately dependent on belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgements that happen after we die. It therefore has no reality check and it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self-correction ~Greta Christina

I believe in the religion of reason - the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world.

~Robert G. Ingersoll

Religion has nothing to do with morality, and is all about power fueled by superstition ~ Anonymous

The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the actions and motives of others. What have the different sects, creeds, doctrines in religion been but so many pretexts set up for men to wrangle, to quarrel, to tear one another in pieces about, like a target as a mark to shoot at?

~ William Hazlit – On the Pleasure of Hating

We have tried for over a thousand years, as a species, teaching people that killing people and holding others below yourself, and being indifferent to the suffering of others was wrong because God said so. I think we can firmly conclude that that strategy was a dismal failure. Instead, the zeal created by religious conviction has led people to hurt others in the name of God.

~ M. LeBlanc

If proselytisers had genuine faith they would at least tone down the proselytism. Surely the God they believe in has the power, hypothetically speaking, to move the hearts of unbelievers without their having to be argued, bribed, or bludgeoned into doctrinal submission first.

~ Barbara O'Brien

Inspired by the Pope's recent call to remember our country's Christian roots I was wondering which particular roots we should return to. Burning Protestants or hanging Roman Catholic priests? Requiring Dissenters to live 10 miles from the City of London, or Roman Catholics 5 miles? And if we decide to execute the Archbishop of Canterbury should we burn him like Cranmer or behead him like Laud?

~ Mark Francis

Coming out as an atheist can have serious real-world consequences. Parents get denied custody of their children for being atheists. People get harassed and vandalized by their neighbors for being atheists. Teachers get suspended for being atheists. Teenagers get harassed and suspended from school for being atheists. Politicians whip up anti-atheist fear to try to get elected. (And that’s just in the US. I’m not even talking about parts of the world where atheism is a crime, punishable by imprisonment or death.)

~ Greta Christina

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning

~ Bill Gates

Morality is not the monopoly of any faith: an atheist can be more ethical than a religious person. At the end of the day, what matters is that humans behave with consideration and decency, and avoid imposing their beliefs on others

~ Irfan Husain

The greatest intellectual framework that the human intellect has ever generated is the scientific method. On so many levels, it has freed us from the shackles of barbaric, divisive, and infantile superstition. Yet, all presidential candidates parade their faiths as though it were a virtue to believe in virgin births, burning bushes, and flying horses.

~Gad Saad

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

~Susan B. Anthony~

No opinion should be protected from criticism simply by virtue of being religiously held.

~Richard Dawkins~

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

~Bertrand Russell~

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

~Douglas Adams~

The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it.

~Mark Twain~

One can appreciate and treasure the symmetry and grandeur of the ancient Greek Parthenon without needing any share in the cults of Athena or Eleusis, or the imperatives of Athenian imperialism, just as one may listen to Mozart or admire Chartres and Durham without any nostalgia for feudalism, monarchism, and the sale of indulgences.

~Christopher Hitchens~

The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.

~Sam Harris~

We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

~Tariq Ali

In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.

~Sam Harris~

It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.

~Sam Harris~

The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is O.K. as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can’t be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can’t be measured easily isn’t very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can’t easily be measured doesn’t really exist. This is suicide.

~Daniel Yankelovich

The universe is 13.7 billion years old, the Earth 4.6 billion. A mere 2,000 years ago, at a time of great ignorance and superstition, some Middle Eastern men wrote some books. With respect, does it never strike you as absurd to use them as proof of a benevolent and watchful God?

~Anon~

A truly liberal society guarantees the freedom of all religions, but it accepts the tyranny of none. People must be free to live without threat or fear. To say the things, write the words and live the lives they choose. Does that offend some people? Yes, of course. But the price of freedom is the risk of offence. And, for me, that price is always worth paying.

~Ming Campbell~

Religions are, by definition, metaphors after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you - even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all opposition.

~Neil Gaiman~

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

~George Carlin~

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company

~Mark Twain~

O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it...

Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

~Alfred Hitchcock~

Since we are often told that god is ineffable and that it is impossible to know his mind it is quite astonishing the number of people that then proceed to tell you exactly what he thinks.

~Anon~

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.

~Bertrand Russell~

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.

~Dan Rather~

There's an infinite number of things that some people at one time or another have believed in, and an infinite number of things that nobody has believed in. If there's not the slightest reason to believe in any of those things, why bother? The onus is on somebody who says, I want to believe in God, Flying Spaghetti Monster, fairies, or whatever it is. It is not up to us to disprove it.

~Richard Dawkins~

Religion attacks us in our deepest integrity by saying we wouldn't be able to make a moral decision without it, and that a supernatural dictatorship is our only hope. That makes us all into serfs.

~Christopher Hitchens~

Thinkers of the Enlightenment, a set of new intellectual attitudes that remade Western culture in the 17th and 18th centuries, set out to understand the world and themselves through reason rather than religion. Their ideas led to massive advances in science, economics and commerce, the arts and human liberty, which underpin our present prosperity and social freedoms.

~Ayaan Hirsi Ali~

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.

~Bill Vaughan~

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

~Charles Bukowski~

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

~Herbert Agar~

When evidence conflicts with cherished beliefs, most people are happier to explain away even the most compelling data rather than abandon their beliefs.

~Richard Wiseman~

If morality comes from religion, why is it normal for chimpanzees, all tribal peoples and non-believers to feel empathy for others, to practice fairness, and to remain loyal to relatives and friends?

~Anthony Layng~

A strongly held belief does not automatically deserve respect ~ConversationalAtheist.com~

A reluctance to accept the importance of reason is easy to explain. To ignore reason is to avoid a sense of personal responsibility, which makes it easy to explain everything that you see in terms of the tenets of your 'faith', be it religious, political or economic in origin.

~Robert Hall~

Religious fundamentalisms are not only found in every region and religion, but they are also becoming increasingly visible at the international level in, for example, the international human rights system.

~Cassandra Balchin~

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

~Bertrand Russell~

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

~John Maynard Keynes~

My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so.

~Charles J. Ingersoll~

History: An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.